New Zealand 
Retired Racehorses 
May 25 2011
| Lady Chryss O Reilly breeds at the hugely successful La Louviere Stud in Normandy, France, and Castlemartin Stud in Kildare, Ireland, and has been Chairperson of the Irish National Stud for over a decade. She took over the running of Haras de La Louviere from her uncle, the late Constantin Goulandris, in 1978 and established a successful policy of selling yearling colts and retaining many of the fillies to race and add to the broodmare band. | |||
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She has bred 16 individual Group One winners including Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe hero Helissio, Classic winners Latice, Lacovia, Lawman and Silver Frost, champion sprinter Equiano, top filly Nahoodh and established sire Highest Honor, to name but a few of her 149 stakes winners. Between them, they have won 242 stakes races. Lady O Reilly currently has 73 horses in training worldwide, 26 in Ireland, two in England, 43 in France and two in South Africa. Castlemartin Stud, established as a commercial stud farm just 20 years ago, is set on 850 acres of Kildare's finest pasture and is home to around 65 of Lady O Reilly's 111 strong broodmare band, most of whom are visible in the paddocks from the windows of the Georgian house. |
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Tell us how you entered the breeding world & how difficult was it getting started? "I was always a horse fanatic and two of my uncles and a cousin were involved in horseracing and breeding. My uncle bought La Louviere Stud in 1968, so really I have been somewhat involved all my life. Sadly my uncle died ten years after acquiring the stud and I was the only person in the family able to take it on at that time. I knew the stud, the staff and much of the stock. When I was a student I used to stay there at weekends, and during the summers we stayed there during the Deauville race meeting and sales every August. So although I was extremely inexperienced, I knew a little. "It had always been a dream of mine to eventually have a stud, but I did not expect to be involved so young. My uncle had assembled some extremely well bred fillies, which enabled us to start with very young mares from good families. I was very fortunate in that way. Some of those families are still producing Group winners for us." What was the major turning point in your career? "I suppose that would be when we took the decision early on to race many of the homebred fillies and sell all the colts. In retrospect that meant a very long-term commitment to building up families, which we also started doing here in Ireland about 20 years later. In France my uncle started acquiring quality breeding prospects in the early 1970s. In Ireland we're developing other more recently acquired families, now in a much more selective environment." What has been the best professional decision you have made? "The same, I think. Making the decision to go with patience. I don't know whether it has been the best professional decision, though!" What has been your greatest disappointment? "Definitely it would be a very good filly called Sahara Slew, who won the Gr.2 Ribblesdale Stakes, trained by John Oxx, she was a daughter out of the only filly out of Salpinx, who herself was a fantastic filly, a Group Two winner, really tough. Unfortunately she was born the same year as Three Troikas, who prevented her winning her Group One by a nose! She died at 14, leaving only one daughter, Sahara Sun, the dam of Sahara Slew. Sadly, Sahara Slew got laminitis, which is very unusual for a horse in training, shortly before she was to run in the Irish Oaks. She survived, thanks to Ian Wright's surgery and Peter Stanley's amazing care, to produce three foals but only one filly, Sierra Slew, who was very weak and didn't race. Sierra Slew's first foal is a filly, so she must be a good racehorse to keep the line going. "Seattle Slew was the best I've ever seen and has been an amazing broodmare sire. I was so lucky to have a European Group winning mare by him and then to lose her was a great disappointment." What do you consider your greatest breeding triumph? "I have been very lucky, with so many good horses, but I think for leaving his mark on the breed it would have to be Highest Honor, whose line looks set to go on through Verglas. Lawman, too, I hope will become a successful stallion. When you have a horse that sires or produces high class winners, that's a triumph." What has been your most satisfying day at the sales? "The first year we ever sold yearlings we had a group of mares who had been in America and many of them were brought over, all in foal to American sires. An Empery colt out of one of these, a French mare, topped the Deauville sale. That was a very bad beginning! I thought it was so easy! I don't think we've ever had a Deauville sales topper since then!" What has been your proudest moment in racing? "Helissio crossing the finishing line in the 'Arc'. That was an incredible moment." |
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Has there been anybody in the Industry who has had an impact on your career and you most admire? "Francois Boutin. When we first started he was responsible for buying a number of our foundation mares. He bought Salpinx as a foal; Nahoodh's ancestress Mirea as a yearling; Primevere, dam of Priolo, as a foal; Briesta, dam of Brilliance, as a yearling. There are a lot of very influential mares that he was responsible for buying for most of his owner breeder clients. He was quite unique and had a fantastic eye for a horse. He loved breeding, he understood pedigrees and he would always try to buy race fillies with a view to their future as broodmares. I was still only learning the basics and he was very patient and a very good teacher." If you had the power to make one change in the thoroughbred Industry, what would it be? "Prize money! For example, we have successful long-standing relationships with trainers in England, in particular David (Dandy) Nicholls and Sir Mark Prescott, and the level of racing in the UK is terrific, but if you were just setting off sadly it makes no economic sense to race there." Can you name a best horse bred or sold? "For sheer ability in his year, Helissio. In recent times Chinese White, Lawman and his half-sister Latice, equally. Joshua Tree, our most recently bred Group One winner, is a very brave horse and very good on his day." What other aspirations would like to achieve in the future? "To win good races. The ultimate aspiration for a breeder is for the horses they've bred to be remembered in history perhaps for longer than their breeders! It's ultimately to leave a legacy." What is the best advice you can give a young breeder entering the industry? "To focus on the best stock, within means, to breed on the best land, patience, the best possible care, observation and attention to detail are all hugely important. It is vital to breed on good land and the economic climate doesn't permit breeding from anything but well-bred and athletic stock, which should be a positive for the breed over time. "Our relative success is due to teamwork, our staff and stud manager here, James Kelly, in France, Mark Violette and his team, Patricia Boutin, and all our trainers. We also depend on the trainers of the horses we sell. I am just as happy seeing a homebred win for someone else as I am when our own horses win." Gr.1 winners on the Flat bred by Lady O Reilly: Joshua Tree (Ire) Canadian International |
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